Disclaimer: I don't own HP.

Dutch Courage

Jamie Potter was currently splayed out on the carpeted floor of the Heads' common room. The radio was playing some annoying Muggle song. She was looking at the ceiling, which was honestly nothing special, and listening to the scratching of Liam Evans' quill against the parchment he was scribbling on. She had been trying to convince herself to ask the Head Boy out for a while now, and she was getting nowhere with herself. Come on, Jame, you can do this! You're a Gryffindor for Merlin's sake!

"Evans?" she said, cringing slightly at the volume of her voice in the nearly silent common room. She flicked her wand in the direction of the radio to turn it off. She couldn't think with that irritating beat playing.

"Yeah, Potter?" Liam replied, eyes not moving from his work. She sighed at the look of focus that was occupying his face. Too bad that focus wasn't directed towards her.

"Will you come with me to Hogsmeade?" The invitations to Hogsmeade had started as a bit of a joke, something that they could both laugh about, but now anyone could hear the seriousness in the brunette's voice.

Liam frowned a bit, but still continued on with his work. "Potter, you don't honestly want to go to Hogsmeade with me. We know nothing about each other, what would we talk about?"

And though Jamie had a lot of the date planned out, she could not, in that moment, remember anything of what she had thought about.

"Erm… Uh… I can't remember at this moment in time, but if you agree to come, then I'm sure that you'll see what a good conversationalist I can be."

That made him laugh. "Sorry Jamie, but…"

She groaned, and rolled onto her stomach. "…that's not a good enough argument? Why must you insist on embarrassing me like this?"

"Why must you insist on getting yourself embarrassed?" he countered, finally turning away from his work. His tone was light, so she knew that she shouldn't take this seriously. She hid her hurt, and buried her head in the pillow lying beside her, trying to conceal her flaming red cheeks.

She heard Liam packing his stuff up, and realised that he was leaving after he scraped his chair back and said, "Goodnight, Jamie."

"Please, don't leave on my account, Evans," she said, voice muffled by the pillow. Honestly, she wanted him gone so that she could mope and read a trashy romance novel or something, but her parents had ingrained a certain amount of politeness into her person.

"I wasn't." Jamie could almost sense the 'stop being so full of yourself' that must've been running through his mind. "I'm exhausted, and there's a Transfiguration quiz tomorrow." Shit. Shit. Transfiguration! She barely remembered McGonagall saying something about that at the end of the last lesson, and she hadn't taken notes that day, having been too busy checking out Evans.

"Oh, fuck! I knew I'd forgotten something!" She leapt up, and hurried to the portrait hole, hoping that Remy would have some notes for her to look over.

"Good luck, Jamie," Liam called after her, the amusement clear in his voice. He obviously wasn't embarrassed about the situation from before.

Well, now it wasn't just the romantic department that she was completely screwed in.

"Jame, there's Evans," Sirena Black said as they walked out of Potions, grey eyes flashing as she surveyed the redhead. She didn't particularly mind Evans; it's just that when she was the one who had to pick Jamie up from her lows after being turned down again and again, he wasn't her favourite person in the world.

Jamie's eyes widened. "How do I look?" she quickly said to her best friend, scanning down the hallway for her crush. She spotted his shock of dark red hair about halfway down.

Sirena rolled her eyes. "Just go, you idiot." Jamie just loved it when her friend supported her actions.

She took off down the hall. "Evans!" Jamie called out, running to catch up to Liam, who had legs that were vastly longer than hers. The corridor was filled with students, all moving through quickly to get to class. "Oi, Evans! Would you bloody stop?" Her voice was nearly lost in the chatter of the crowd.

Liam turned, having thankfully heard her, and came to a halt. "What do you need, Potter?" His friendly smile made her insides do a couple of flips. She idly wondered if when they kissed, her stomach would do a whole gymnastics routine.

Jamie, slightly out of breath from the unexpected run, said with a grin, "You can call me Jamie, love," as she too stopped.

He laughed, eyes sparkling, which made her feel slightly triumphant, and moved both of them to the side of the corridor to avoid getting hit by the many students that were rushing about. "I haven't for six years, Potter, what makes you think I'll start now? I'm sorry, but I don't really have time for a chat, I need to speak with Rem about something. Is this really important, or-"

"I want you to go out with me," she said quickly, face scrunching up as she awaited Liam's reaction. She expected a no, but was hoping that just this once, he'd say yes. Sure, he usually let her down kindly, but that often left her in a funk that only huge amounts of chocolate and flying could cure.

"-can it… What?" The shock on Liam's face made her cringe, and the hope that he'd say yes was slowly waning. He must not have been expecting this, since she'd asked him out last night.

"Go out with me, Liam?" she said, teeth pressing down on her bottom lip as she nervously waited for his reply.

"Jamie…"

"No, look, this time you can't avoid this, because I do know you. Okay? I know that you like to eat jelly with a fork, and I know that your favourite colour's blue. I know that you and your brother have a few issues, and I know that you don't like watching other people do things wrong, 'cause you always feel the need to correct them." Jamie took in a deep breath, determined to get this out, whatever the consequences may be. She needed him to know. "I know that on every Hogsmeade trip, you go to Honeydukes and get a month's supply of Sugar Quills, because you always run through them in class, and I know that you can't stand cigarettes because of what happened to your father last year. Don't say that I don't know you, Evans, because I do. We may not be the best of friends, but I would really like to get to know you better. And I think that we would work well together, no matter how much you might try to deny it. Think about it. It's one Hogsmeade trip, not a declaration of marriage."

And with that said, Jamie turned around, ready to join Sirena to go up to their dorm. But she felt a warm hand catch onto her upper arm, which was stopping her from moving.

"How do you know all that?" Liam asked, voice low and troubled.

She shook his hand off. "I pay attention." And off she went to join Sirena, who was leaning against the wall with a bored look, idly examining her fingernails. When Sirena saw her friend coming towards her, she straightened up and gave a grin.

"How'd it go?" she said. One look at Jamie's expression told her everything she needed to know, and she turned to give a scowl at Liam, who was watching them walk away with a strange look on his face. "Let's go, I reckon Rem's got some chocolate in The Stash, still. It wasn't all demolished after the last full moon."

"I reckon I just need to be alone," Jamie said quietly.

Sirena snorted. "Ah, piss off. You're not going anywhere alone at the moment. You promised to help me with my Transfig homework."

Jamie sighed, but was secretly relieved that Sirena knew exactly how to treat situations like this. "Alright, Si. Let's go."

Sirena grinned at the small victory.

At nine o'clock in the evening, the Marauders were usually found up in their dormitory, reading, talking, or doing homework. Most of them were frantically trying to finish the Potions essay due tomorrow, but Frankie Longbottom was trying to leave without anyone noticing. Too bad that Sirena saw everything.

"Where're you off to, Frankie?" Sirena asked suggestively, slim eyebrows raised.

Frankie flushed, having been trying to slip out the door as quietly as possible. "I'm visiting Al," she mumbled, red as a tomato. There were a few 'ooh's around the room, and Frankie blushed even harder. She and Alan Prewett had been dating for a while, and spent a lot of time together.

"Remember to use protection," Petra Pettigrew said with a smirk, and Frankie took that opportunity to send a rude gesture her way, before leaving the room. Everyone started snickering, everything becoming unnaturally funny due to the shots of alcohol they'd consumed earlier, and soon enough, Jamie, Sirena and Petra were rolling on the floor, unable to breath due to their extreme laughter, having finally abandoned the essays..

Remy Lupin just sighed and turned a page in her book.

There was a knock at the door.

All of the girls looked at each other as their laughter fizzled out, trying to figure out if someone was meant to be coming by tonight.

"Was Mark meant to be visiting you tonight, Si?" Remy asked, confused.

Sirena shook her head with a frown. "Who is it?" she shouted in the general direction of the door.

"Liam," was the reply.

"How the hell'd he get up here?" Petra said, mouth open. "The stairs should've stopped him."

"Fuck. I'm not sure that I can speak to him after today," Jamie hissed, hazel eyes wide and a bit freaked out.

"Get yourself together, Jamie, and invite him in," Remy said sternly. "You can't just leave him out there. What if he wants to invite you to Hogsmeade?"

Jamie scowled at Remy, hating the fact that she was right.

Sirena rolled her eyes, and decided to speed things up. "Come in, Evans." At Jamie's look, she said, "What? You weren't doing anything."

The door creaked as it opened, admitting a completely gorgeous looking Liam Evans. "Black. Pettigrew. Rem." He nodded at all of them, before turning to Jamie. "Jamie, can I talk to you outside?"

The other girls gave Jamie encouraging looks, and she inwardly swore while simultaneously giving herself a pep talk as she got up. You can do this. You are a strong, confident Gryffindor who can kick his arse in a duel and a Quidditch match. Never mind the fact that you're wearing your old Holyhead Harpies pyjamas. Wait- Am I wearing a bra? "C'mon, Evans," she muttered, taking hold of his arm and dragging him away, closing the door behind her with a pointed look towards her friends that meant 'no listening in'. She was suddenly thankful for the few shots of firewhiskey from before. They were making her feel a bit stronger.

The three other Marauders fought to get to the keyhole first. Sirena won.

"So..." Liam said, eyebrows nervously creased together.

"You finished the Potion's essay yet?" Jamie said, just to fill the bit of silence that was on it's way to becoming awkward.

"Yeah. Yeah, I have. Listen, Jamie… I thought about what you said today," Liam began, green eyes apprehensive as he took her in. Yes, Liam, as you should have. Jamie crossed her arms over her chest, mostly to give her breasts some lift. Weren't blokes meant to be attracted to cleavage? "And you're right."

She raised an eyebrow, unimpressed, and he let out a deep sigh. "Look, Jamie, I think that you're amazing. You're funny, and smart, and so beautiful that sometimes I can't even think." He rubbed the side of his head, looking both uncomfortable and passionate about what he was saying. "I consider us friends, and I do reckon that I'd like to be more."

"I thought that we didn't know anything about each other," Jamie said, eyes wide and flickering with a bit of hope, not daring to believe that this was actually happening.

"That's not true, and I shouldn't have said it. I know a lot about you, and you obviously know a lot about me," Liam said earnestly. That piqued her interest.

"What do you know about me?" she asked, curious now.

He took in a deep breath. "I know that you'd do anything for your friends, whether it's legal or not. I know that McGonagall's your favourite teacher, just because she won't put up with your crap. I know that you adore the raspberry chocoballs from Honeydukes, and I know that you can only function in the mornings when you've had some coffee." Jamie almost thought that she hear a sigh and a few giggles come from the direction of her dormitory. "I know that you don't want to be a Quidditch player when you're older, like everyone says, and I know that to calm yourself down, you always go flying, whatever the weather. And I also suspect, that if I were to ask you out right now, you'd say yes." Well, he wasn't wrong. "So, Jamie Potter; I've acted like a complete git these past few weeks, and in spite of that, I was wondering if you would like to go out with me?" Liam was looking at her earnestly, seeming scared and hopeful, and ready to run in the case that he got a 'no'. And she thought that it was all bloody adorable.

Jamie sucked her lower lip in between her teeth to stop herself from squealing. "Well, I don't know…" she said, just to throw him off a bit. The fear on his face become more pronounced at this point, and he was staring at her like she had just killed his puppy.

"Just bloody say yes, you idiot!" came a muffled cry from her dormitory. Of course they were listening at the door.

Jamie's mouth dropped open. "Sirena!" she exclaimed, embarrassed. "Don't bloody interfere!"

"That means yes, Evans, now snog her!" Sirena said, obviously thinking that she was assisting her best mate.

Liam's eyes widened, and he stumbled back a bit, surprised by the request.

"Ah, shit. Evans, stay there for a sec, would you?" Jamie said, a look of exasperation on her pretty features. She stomped to the door of her dorm, cast a muffling charm on it, and went back to him.

"So, yeah. You can snog me if you want."

Liam, seeming a bit bewildered, said, "But you haven't answered me!"

"Oh, right. Yes! Yes, of course, I'd love to!"

He let out a breath of relief. "Thank Merlin. I was a bit worried there for a second…"

"Shut it, Evans. Just kiss me."

He did.

Only a faint whisper of, "How adorable is that?" came from the girls' dormitory.

Written pretty quickly after I decided that I didn't like the other thing I was writing for the Jily AU week on Tumblr. Let's excuse the fact that this is several days late for that, and enjoy the genderswapping!

And, since I haven't seen you guys since November, Merry Christmas and have a Happy New Year!

Love,

Silvs